Especially if the home aesthetics and footprint are comparable, there is still good rental supply available.

Tenants: working class, punk musicians, artists, some college areas but these tenants need more personal attention and cash rents.

I wonder how much style matters - I am planning to do something aesthetically that is not common in the area but definitely need to do a deeper dive into potential competition.

I had a similar tenant and raised the rent every year by the minimum $30/month.For 11 years she paid her water bills, did direct deposits a week before the 1st of each month & took good care of the place & never complained.Admittedly the home originally cost me $22K, & I did very little to it over the years.I sold it 2 years ago for $42K to a fellow investor & she is still there paying the same rents.Tenants like these are like gold nuggets.I just stole an elderly tenant from another landlord who moved a young punk above her in a duplex.The woman had been there 9 years & just wanted peace & quiet.

Indio is nice but it's a different target market in Indio vs JT and a successful STR is predicated on being able to taylor the property's aesthetics to the target customer.

Now, I understand these other appliances have the aesthetic factor to be weighted in but when it comes to old A.C units I'll run them till the last breath from now on...

I believe this could be a much quicker answer to my project, while still remaining aesthetically pleasing and durable for tenant abuse.  

I maybe would have continued the same hardwood from living areas to kitchen and gone with a different paint for the bathrooms, but that's my aesthetic. 

Finding cashflow will be in improving those market rents through cycling tenants and improving the inward and outward aesthetics as well!

Don't get me wrong; there are plenty of issues/problems/quirks that old houses have that new houses don't, and an old house can obviously have hidden problems and big repair/maintenance bills too--which is why thorough due diligence is fundamental to REI...but, the point is: a brand new house is not a foolproof solution to repairs/maintenance headaches (and in some cases, a brand new house can be a much bigger gamble than an older house).This is a particularly important lesson for inexperienced investors, who tend to be the most prone to "shiny object syndrome" (the tendency to let nice aesthetics distract from real, underlying issues).